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PRESS RELEASE
9 October 2009
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DECISION BY DUTCH GOVERNMENT IS A FIRST IMPORTANT STEP TOWARDS STARTING DREDGING WORK
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Alfaport Antwerp, the federation of port companies and logistics service providers in the port of Antwerp, welcomes today's decision by the Dutch government to go ahead with de-poldering, but remains wary. The federation's managing director Rudi De Meyer stated that "this decision brings the Dutch government back into line with the commitments laid down in the Scheldt Treaties of December 2005. This is absolutely positive, as it represents a first step towards actually going ahead with the dredging work, but there are various other steps that remain to be taken."
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The treaties have as their main object the deepening of the navigation channel in the Western Scheldt, i.e. the lower Scheldt estuary which lies on Dutch territory. However, they also include measures to compensate for loss of natural habitat. On 17 April this year the Dutch government decided to do this by creating salt marshes on the riverside of the dikes, instead of de-poldering (allowing areas of reclaimed land to revert to a state of nature). In doing so it swept away the social support that had been so carefully built up for the deepening work, as the choice of creating salt marshes beyond the dikes was the signal for a number of nature conservation organisations to appeal to the Dutch Council of State.
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The Council of State declared in an interlocutory decision in July this year that the objections by the nature organisations were founded, and issued a temporary injunction against the dredging work going ahead. Accordingly, today's decision by the Dutch government to abandon the idea of creating salt marshes and to go ahead with de-poldering is to be welcomed, as it does away with some of the objections by some of the nature associations, or so it is to be hoped. It remains to be seen, however, whether the Council of State will lift its injunction in its final decision.
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"The decision on the merits of the case by the Dutch Council of State will probably not be issued until the end of this year. It is important for this obstacle to the dredging work to be removed quickly so that work can start without delay. Today's decision is certainly very encouraging. We are more hopeful about deepening of the Western Scheldt today than we were yesterday, but we remain wary," said Rudi de Meyer.
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Contact:
Stephan Vanfraechem, policy & communication manager
GSM 0486 51 01 69
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Contact:
Stephan Vanfraechem, directeur beleid en communicatie
GSM 0486 51 01 69
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